July
20 #2 - Echavarri: Pereiro won the jackpot, Attacking
is the only solution for Sastre, Schleck: We had to believe in Carlos,
Axel Merckx: When you're empty, you're empty, Marc Sergeant: Still surprises
to come, All for nothing for Leipheimer, "No explanation" for Hincapie,
Tour a survival test for Gerrans, Post-stage quotes

July
20 - Stage 16 wrap-up, An interview with the
maillot jaune, An interview with the winner, An interview with
Floyd Landis, Cyril Dessel gives his regrets to Phonak

July
19 #3 - Sunderland: Patience pays off for Schleck,
Gerolsteiner: In illness and in health, up l'Alpe, Armstrong talks doping

July
6 #2 - An interview with stage 4 winner, Wiggins
almost wiggles out a win, Third top ten finish for Eisel, Valverde wants
to come back for the Vuelta, T-Mobile car searched

July
6 - Stage 4 wrap-up, An interview with Floyd
Landis, Boogerd ready to Boogie-Woogie, Wilfried Cretskens diary: What
I do, Millar will get to Paris, Any rider supporting Portugal at the TdF?,
Just over 1 day left to join Fantasy Le Tour

June
28 #2 - Ullrich to sue newspaper and do DNA test?,
Astana Würth bound for Strasbourg, but no team presentation, Gerolsteiner's
double hopes - two captains, two goals, Jalabert going for July 14 win,
Davitamon-Lotto gets a cook for the Tour

Recently on Cyclingnews.com

Latest Cycling News for July 4, 2006

McQuaid responds to French sports minister

UCI president Pat McQuaid has addressed an open letter to the French
sports minister as well as WADA chief Dick Pound, in which he responded
to recent comments about the UCI made in relation with the Spanish Operación
Puerto affair. On Saturday, July 1, French sports minister Jean-François
Lamour accused the UCI leader of not doing enough to fight doping in cycling.

"I think it's necessary to say this very clearly; the UCI is very timid
on the issue," Lamour told French Europe 1 radio. "It will have
to roll up its sleeves and act, so that on all continents and in all countries,
there are real and unexpected control actions."

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Lamour added that it was possible to compete in the Tour de France after taking
illegal drugs and still not test positive because doping often occurred
during race preparation. "In the Tour de France, only the naive ones get
caught," he said, calling for more random doping controls throughout the
year.

In his response, Pat McQuaid said that the comments were "completely
unjustified", and that he "would like to remind the Minister that instead
of making loose remarks on out-of-competition controls he should be coming
up with concrete recommendations as to how he might improve the testing
methods so that the kind of blood transfusion that was allegedly administered
may be detected. The fact of the matter is that the riders implicated
in Operation Puerto have been tested many times, including in the French
laboratory in Châtenay-Malabry, both within and out of competition and
have always proven negative."

The Irishman continued by saying that WADA conducted 189 out-of-competition
tests on cyclists in 2005, of which only one result was positive for EPO,
not blood transfusion. "So amount of out-of-competition controls would
have assisted in identifying the practices being utilised in Spain: these
are simply not detectable by doping controls," he stated.

Pantani a Fuentes patient, too

The Italian Corriere della Sera seems to be in possession of
Operación Puerto information which suggests that Italian cycling icon
Marco Pantani, who died in the spring of 2004 as a consequence of his
drug addiction, was also a 'patient' of Dr Eufemiano Fuentes, now incriminated
in a vast doping affair. According to the paper, Pantani turned to Fuentes
in 2003, and was given the code name PTNI in Fuentes' records. The doctor
gave 'PTI' more than 40,000 units of EPO, seven doses of growth hormone,
thirty doses of anabolic steroids and four doses of hormones used to treat
menopause.

According to the Spanish investigation, Fuentes applied a minimal tariff
to Pantani: €36,000 were spent for that treatment. Between 2002 and
2006, Fuentes and associates are believed to have earned at least €8
million from their doping activities.

FIFA: no footballers involved

The World's governing body of football FIFA has announced that there
are no footballers included in the list of sports professionals linked
to the Spanish doping network uncovered by Operación Puerto. FIFA
had asked the Spanish judicial authorities for information on the case,
and was now given clarification by the Spanish minister of sport, Jaime
Lissavetzky. Earlier media reports had suggested that there were also
footballers involved.

Cauberg ready for Tour!

Dutch organisers of the short Tour de France loop into the Netherlands
today are ready and happy to welcome the Grande Boucle. The Tour
caravan will cross the Belgian border this afternoon in stage three, and
pursue for another 33,4 kilometres on Dutch soil until the finish in Valkenburg.
There will be three Cat. 4 hills to climb, all of them well-known to the
cycling world as they are also included in the itinerary of spring classic
Amstel Gold Race: the Loorberg, the Trintelen and the Cauberg in the city
of Valkenburg itself.

This last climb will of course be the most decisive one with its 12
percent gradient - and spectators are sure to abound. "It's the Alpe d'Huez
of the Netherlands!" said one of the organisers, Bennie Ceulen. Valkenburg
mayor Constant Nuytens expects at least 400,000 people from the Netherlands,
Germany and Belgium to come to the streets and watch the event, but on
the sides of the Cauberg main street climb, only 40,000 fans will be admitted.

"Entrance is free, of course, but once it's full, it's full," said Nuytens.
The Cauberg will also feature two VIP-tribunes and four still cameras,
and there is no space for camper vans like there is in the Alps or the
Pyrenees. Dutch railways have increased up the amount of trains going
into Valkenburg to 12 per hour for today, in comparison to two per hour
normally.

The Tour de France visits Valkenburg for the second time in its history:
in 1992, 600,000 people gathered to watch the race on the roadside. With
beautiful weather announced for today's stage 3, and temperatures expected
to rise well above 30° Celsius, the streets will be packed, many fans
hoping to see Michael Boogerd or Erik Dekker win on home soil.

"Maillot Jaune would be welcome" says Valverde

With only 16 seconds separating him from the yellow jersey - and not
many other specialists as high up in General Classification as him - Alejandro
Valverde looks to be one of the favourites for Tuesdays's stage 3 from
Esch-sur-Azette to Valkenburg. After passing through the Belgian Ardennes,
the Tour stage will be decided after the famous Cauberg climb in Valkenburg.

"The stage will be special to me because after winning those classics
(in spring, Flčche Wallonne and Ličge-Bastogne-Ličge - ed.], it will be
very nice to ride on those same roads again," said Valverde before the
stage. "I hope I'm lucky and that I ride well. In the finale, we'll climb
the Cauberg, which made Amstel Gold Race so famous. My memory of it is
less pleasant, as I really suffered in that classic in April. That's also
why I would like to do well there today, but you can't really talk of
a revenge as the context is totally different."

Valverde knows that if he has good legs today, he could reach for the
overall leadership - even though it's also clear that this would imply
a greater responsibility in the race. "The Tour counts 21 stages; it's
still very long," he continued. "But I would still like to win that stage,
as any stage in the Tour. But this one could give me the Yellow Jersey!
We'll see what happens. As I'm part of the overall favourites, this would
mean a lot of responsibility for the team. But we could also take it only
for one day or two - in that case, the jersey would be very welcome!"

Contract news: Moerenhout, Lancaster

Dutch outlet Wielernieuws has published the latest information
on some rider's contracts. According to which, Koos Moerenhout will extend
his time with Swiss Phonak team for another two years, which will be taken
over by a new main sponsor, American iShares, as of 2007.

Australian Brett Lancaster might ride for Team Milram next season. The
26 year-old is courted by the Italian team as well as Davitamon-Lotto,
as Robbie McEwen would like his fellow countryman to replace Henk Vogels.
Lancaster will therefore leave his current team Ceramica Panaria-Navigare,
with whom he won the Giro d'Italia prologue last year. He missed out on
the Giro this season due to injury.